"LA HORA DE" IN ENGLISH

Good morning and welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope you are having a great day!

Today we are going to look at how to say the Spanish phrase la hora de algo or la hora de hacer algo in English.

The word hora often causes translation problems because of its similarity to the English word hour. In today's Vitamin, however, you will see that the correct translation is often time, not hour.

LA HORA DE
This phrase is often incorrectly translated literally as the hour to. The correct translation is: TIME TO VERB or TIME FOR NOUN.

The complete expression is: It's time to do something or It's time for something

Notice in the examples below that the word time is not preceded by the definite article the.

Example 1: We've had a very nice time at the party but now it's time to leave.

Example 2: The coffee break is over, everyone! It's time to get back to work!

Example 3: I have to go. It's almost time for my class.

Example 4: Is it time for dinner, yet? I'm starving!

To get some writing practice in English, I encourage you to write a sentence or two with these phrases: TIME TO VERB and/or TIME FOR NOUN. You can post your sentences to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing as soon as we can.

Enjoy the rest of your day. 

All the best!